Making Patterned Single Defects in MoS 2 Thermally with the MoS 2 /Au Moiré Interface

• Published in: ACS nano 2024-10, Vol.18 (40), p.27411-27419
• Main Authors: Bao, Yang, Shao, JingJing, Xu, Hai, Yan, Jiaxu, Jing, Peng-Tao, Xu, Jilian, Zhan, Da, Li, Binghui, Liu, Kewei, Liu, Lei, Shen, Dezhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1936-0851; 1936-086X
• DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c07212

Normally, it is hard to regulate thermal defects precisely in their host lattice due to the stochastic nature of thermal activation. Here, we demonstrate a thermal annealing way to create patterned single sulfur vacancy (V ) defects in monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS ) with about 2 nm separations at subnanometer accuracy. Theoretically, we reveal that the S-Au interface coupling reduces the energy barriers in forming V defects and that explains the overwhelming formation of interface V defects. We also discover a phonon regulation mechanism by the moiré interface that effectively condenses the Γ-point out-of-plane acoustic phonons of monolayer MoS to its TOP moiré sites, which has been proposed to trigger moiré-patterned thermal V formation. The high-throughput nanoscale patterned defects presented here may contribute to building scalable defect-based quantum systems.